SEIU 503 from my home state of Oregon is many things: powerful, shrewd, and increasingly, something of an embarrassment. It has led the charge to make more home care workers into quasi-government employees so they could be unionized (and pay union taxes in the form of dues). Among the union’s claims is that home care workers (and all state government employees) work too hard for the money they get. Now one of the SEIU’s own leaders says the same about the unions.

“I know there are people who are going to say, ‘Oh, this is just another corrupt union,’ ” said Barbara Casey, an SEIU board member backing the recall. But, she added, “we are correcting this internally. . . . We want to hold our leaders accountable just like the public wants public employees held accountable.”

Why would people say “this is just another corrupt union”? Maybe because it is?